fefifo (PDF)

OANDA help portal
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This FAQ contains information regarding upcoming First in First Out (FIFO) changes that
OANDA is making to its order handling. This FAQ contains the following information:
1. What is FIFO?
2. Who does FIFO impact?
3. When did these FIFO changes occur?
4. What do these changes entail and how do they impact customers?
5. How does this affect/limit stop orders (Web & MT4) and entry orders (Mobile & Desktop)?
7.1. fxTrade example 1
8. Examples of what FIFO changes will look like (limit orders)
8.1. fxTrade example 1
8.2. fxTrade example 2
1. What is FIFO?
First in First Out (FIFO) is a forex trading requirement that complies with National Futures
Association (NFA) regulation. It is a requirement that the first (or oldest) trade must be
closed first if a customer has more than one open trade of the same pair and size.
In order to address this, changes will be implemented that will require all trades that have
a take profit (TP), stop loss (SL), or trailing stop (TS) to be a unique size. After these changes
are implemented, the only scenario in which two trades of the same currency pair can be
the same size is if neither trade has a TP, SL, or TS.

2. Who does FIFO impact?
Please note, these changes will only impact customers who contract accounts from OANDA
Corporation, this applies to both live and practice accounts. If you are not sure which
division you contract with, please review our ‘What division will I contract with when I apply
for an OANDA account’ FAQ.

3. When did these FIFO changes occur?
FIFO changes came into effect on August 16, 2019.

4. What do these changes entail and how do they impact customers?

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After OANDA’s FIFO changes come into effect, any new trades entered on our fxTrade
platforms which do not comply with the FIFO requirement will be prompted with a warning
prior to execution that the SL, TP or TS may cause a FIFO violation.
For additional information, please email fifo@oanda.com.
Please see some examples below of what will happen when users attempt to complete
orders that are not FIFO compliant.

5. How does this affect/limit stop orders (Web & MT4) and entry orders
(Mobile & Desktop)?
Limit/stop and entry orders are checked for FIFO compliance during trigger of their
conditional price rather than during the order entry. If a limit/stop or entry order triggers
and violates OANDA’s FIFO requirement, then the order is cancelled.
Customers will be able to check if their order was cancelled due to a FIFO violation under
their activity history on fxTrade or in their mailbox on the MT4 platform.

6. How does this affect MT4
MT4 will have the same restrictions as OANDA’s proprietary fxTrade platform. However,
OANDA is unable to inform customers of these cancellations when they are running expert
advisors (EAs), although they will still receive a message in their MT4 Mailbox.
On August 16th, MT4 users will receive a message in their MT4 Mailbox whenever an
order is cancelled due to OANDA’s FIFO requirement.

7. Examples of what the FIFO changes will look like (market orders)
7.1 fxTrade example 1

Step

Customer action

Trade activity

1

Buy 1,000 EUR/USD +SL @ 1.05

Trade 1: +1,000 EUR/USD +SL @ 1.05

2

Buy another 1,000 EUR/USD +SL
@ 1.05

Trade 1: +1,000 EUR/USD +SL @ 1.05 /
Trade 2: +1,000 EUR/USD +SL @ 1.05

3

Customer receives notification
that the trade has been
cancelled

Trade 2 is cancelled because all trades
with a SL, TP, or TS must have a unique
size

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7.2 fxTrade example 2

Step

Customer action

Trade activity

1

Buy 1,000 EUR/USD

Trade 1: +1,000 EUR/USD

2

Buy another 1,000 EUR/USD

Trade 1: +1,000 EUR/USD / Trade 2:
+1,000 EUR/USD

3

Customer receives notification that
the trade has been executed

Trade 2 is accepted because
neither trade has a SL, TP, or TS

7.3 fxTrade example 3

Step

Customer
action

Resulting open trades

1

Buy 1,000
EUR/USD

Trade 1: +1,000 EUR/USD

2

Buy another
1,000 EUR/USD

Trade 1: +1,000 EUR/USD / Trade 2: +1,000 EUR/USD

3

Add a SL to
trade 1 +SL @
1.05

Attempt to add SL is cancelled because any trade that
has a SL, TP, or TS must be of a unique size

7.4 fxTrade example 4

Step

Customer action

Resulting open trades

1

Buy 1,001 EUR/USD +SL @ 1.05

Trade 1: +1,001 EUR/USD +SL @ 1.05

2

Buy 1,000 EUR/USD +SL @ 1.05

Trade 1: +1,001 EUR/USD +SL @ 1.05
/ Trade 2: +1,000 EUR/USD +SL @
1.05
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Step

Customer action

Resulting open trades

3

Sell 1 EUR/USD To partially close the
position by 1 unit, in turn reduces the
size of trade 1 from 1,001 to 1,000
units.

Trade 1: +1,000 EUR/USD +SL @ 1.05
/ Trade 2: +1,000 EUR/USD +SL @
1.05

4

Customer receives notification that
the trade has been cancelled

Attempt to partially close trade is
cancelled because all trades with a
SL, TP, or TS must have a unique size

5

Sell 2 EUR/USD

Trade 1: +999 EUR/USD +SL @ 1.05 /
Trade 2: +1,000 EUR/USD +SL @ 1.05

6

To partially close the position by 2
units, in turn reduces the size of trade
1 from 1,001 to 999 units.

Trade is accepted because all
trades with a SL, TP, or TS have a
unique size

7.5 MT4 example 1

Step

Customer
action

Resulting open trades

1

Buy .01
EUR/USD

Trade 1: +.01 EUR/USD

2

Buy .01
EUR/USD

Trade 1: +.01 EUR/USD / Trade 2: +.01 EUR/USD

3

Buy .02
EUR/USD with
Stop Loss @
1.20

Trade 1: +.01 EUR/USD / Trade 2: +.01 EUR/USD / Trade 3:
+.02 EUR/USD + SL @ 1.20

4

Buy .01
EUR/USD

Trade 1: +.01 EUR/USD / Trade 2: +.01 EUR/USD / Trade 3:
+.02 EUR/USD + SL @ 1.20/ Trade 4: +.01 EUR/USD

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Step

Customer
action

Resulting open trades

5

Buy .03
EUR/USD with
Stop Loss @
1.20

Trade 1: +.01 EUR/USD / Trade 2: +.01 EUR/USD / Trade 3:
+.02 EUR/USD + SL @ 1.20 / Trade 4: +.01 EUR/USD / Trade
5: +.03 EUR/USD + SL @ 1.20

6

Buy .04
EUR/USD

Trade 1: +.01 EUR/USD / Trade 2: +.01 EUR/USD / Trade 3:
+.02 EUR/USD + SL @ 1.20 / Trade 4: +.01 EUR/USD / Trade
5: +.03 EUR/USD + SL @ 1.20 / Trade 6: +.04 EUR/USD

7

Buy .05
EUR/USD

Trade 1: +.01 EUR/USD / Trade 2: +.01 EUR/USD / Trade 3:
+.02 EUR/USD + SL @ 1.20 / Trade 4: +.01 EUR/USD / Trade
5: +.03 EUR/USD + SL @ 1.20 / Trade 6: +.04 EUR/USD /
Trade 7: +.05 EUR/USD

8

Buy .02
EUR/USD with
Stop Loss @
1.25 (or
anywhere)

Trade is cancelled - All trades with a SL, TP, or TS must
have a unique size. Trade 3 was .02.

9

Buy .02
EUR/USD with
Take Profit @
1.15 (or
anywhere)

Trade is cancelled - All trades with a SL, TP, or TS must
have a unique size. Trade 3 is at .02 with a SL.

10

Buy .01
EUR/USD with
Stop Loss @
1.10 (or
anywhere)

Trade is cancelled - All trades with a SL, TP, or TS must
have a unique size. Trades 1,2, and 4 were .01.

11

Buy
.03 EUR/USD

Trade is cancelled - All trades without a SL, TP, TS must
not have the same size as a trade with a SL, TP, and TS.
Trade 5 is at .03 with a SL.

8. Examples of what the FIFO changes will look like (limit orders)
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8.1 fxTrade example 1

Step

Customer action

Resulting open trades

1

Place a buy limit of 1,000
EUR/USD @ 1.15 AND +SL @
1.05

Order 1 is accepted

2

Place another buy limit of
1,000 EUR/USD @1.10 +SL @
1.05

Order 2 is accepted

3

Order 1 is triggered as the
price reaches 1.15

Order 1 is accepted because there are no
other trades with a SL, TP, or TS of the same
size

4

Order 2 is triggered as the
price reaches 1.10

Order 2 is cancelled because an existing
trade of 1,000 units with a SL already exists

8.2 fxTrade example 2

Step

Customer action

Resulting open trades

1

Place a buy limit of 1,000
EUR/USD @ 1.15 and +SL @
1.05

Order 1 is accepted

2

Place another buy limit of
1,000 EUR/USD @ 1.10 +SL @
1.05

Order 2 is accepted

3

Order 1 is triggered as the
price reaches 1.15

Order 1 is accepted because there are no
other trades with a SL, TP or TS of the same
size

4

Customer manually closes
trade 1

Trade 1 closes

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Step
5

Customer action
Order 2 is triggered as the
price reaches 1.10

Resulting open trades
Order 2 is accepted because there are no
other trades with a SL, TP or TS of the same
size

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